PAROQUIA – Nssa. Sra. Do Rosário
Residência Nssa. Sra. de Fátima 6 August, 2020 L:2
Trav. Carlos Portes, 171
Cx. P. 101
62.900-000 Russas, Ceará e-mail: [email protected]
BRAZIL http://www.egfbenya.com
Dear Friends, Benefactors, Family, Collaborators and Colleagues,
Definitions indicate! They specify and focus, many times serving as a starting point or passage to another realm. They may be foreign, ambiguous, esoteric and even confusing, but they mark a step. References to any legitimate position, argument or statement must find their origin in established definitions. The hard sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, etc.) depend on established and proven definitions.
New definitions are continuously emerging as research and progress discover new truths or further understand established ones. This dynamic of definition can lead to redefinition of an entity. The pantheon of gods that our ancestors worshipped has given way to the recognition of The One True God whom we worship; not always accepted but clearly revealed and defined as to Who and What IS.
Definitions would be much easier to understand and use if they did not have that dynamic specific to each one. Without dynamic, definitions would be fixed in meaning and probably fixed in number. However because creation has a dynamic, definitions must have dynamic. All legitimate research is directed to addressing the dynamic of creation, and The Creator in His mercy inspires that research. Slow and profound, all legitimate research proceeds in steps in order that humans and all transcending beings can progress in knowledge, understanding and wisdom as well as in data accumulation.
Explosions of data occur, but they are infrequent and well-spaced as Almighty God patiently guides creation in charity rather in mere training or fixation as would one who trains animals or programs computers. That Divine Patience extends to each of us individually, called to unique sanctity for Eternal Life. The call of each saint has its own definition and the dynamic of that definition also progresses in steps. Each of us requires a most patient charity in arriving at the sanctity to which God calls. We doubt, question, wonder and fall at times. The demon tempts us to despair. Yet the Almighty never despairs of us. Notwithstanding our weaknesses and falls, He continues to call, forgive and sustain.
These points and steps of definition are well represented in my life. Your own lives probably have similar steps of definition. As I mark 36 years in Holy Orders, 46 years in Religious Life and 74 years navigating this life, I can see the dynamic of the Divine Call challenging me to a definition of sanctity that is still incomplete and still quite mysterious to me. Only God will judge when and Iff it is complete. My faults are many. Yet the passages of definition in this life have been most blessed. ALL of you have been with me in one way or another in this dynamic which continues NOT AS I DESIRE but as God wills. I thank God and I thank each of you as I remain
Most gratefully in Jesus Christ
Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.